One way or another Coventry?s only undefeated fighter, Steve Bendall, is aiming to become the British middleweight champion within the next few months.

The fact that Howard Eastman, the ?Battersea Bomber? ranked third in the world, stands in his way, is no deterrent to the Tile Hill 29-year-old, who now has 20 wins from 20 pro outings.

Eastman has been ordered by the British Boxing Board of Control to defend his British and Commonwealth middleweight titles against Bendall, before January 31 2004 or let the Lonsdale Belt at 11-and-a-half stone go vacant.

It is by no means certain, however, that the fight, the boxing equivalent of Coventry City v Manchester United in a play-off for the FA Cup, will ever take place.

Eastman may well decide he has bigger fish to fry while Bendall?s backers may well decide discretion is the better part of valour against one of the most naturally talented fighters in the world.

For Bendall, though, pushing 30 in December and with the last 20 years of mountain-climbing aching to reach a peak, there can be only one solution.

?Please God, it will be Howard Eastman I have to fight to win the British and Commonwealth titles,? said Bendall, a man in whom the BBC have high hopes.

They showcase him on Friday, November 14 at Bethnal Green, in a warm-up fight they hope will add momentum to the interest an Eastman/ Bendall clash that was interrupted when the Coventry man suffered a potentially career-ending injury in the spring.

Cruising to a points win against Belgian champion Mike Algoet, Bendall ended up needing 12 stitches to repair a gruesome split that opened up from his forehead to his eyeline towards the end of the fight and forced him into a six-month sabbatical from the sport.

?That?s part of the reason why I want to fight Eastman,? said Bendall. ?Against the journeymen I tend to unconsciously try to finish them off too quickly and I end up forgetting my footwork, standing back and being cut from a clash of heads.

?Against the better fighters I tend to raise my game, as you saw when I beat Lee Blundell (Bendall won by 2nd rd KO) and I know a lot of people will think I don?t have a chance against Eastman but we, that is myself, Dave Lewis and Trevor Francis, think we do and we reckon we?ve got a few things he won?t like.

?The thing is, if I fight Eastman and win then I could set myself up for life,? said Bendall. ?The name of the game is to fight the best out there.

?We?ll see what happens. I really want Eastman, purse bids have to be in by November 12 and there is every chance the fight will be in Coventry as he is not a ticket-seller.

?It would put me on the world stage if I beat Eastman, and it?s certainly what you would call an educated gamble but we think it?s one worth taking.?

Should Eastman dodge the clash, and go for a world title instead, then Bendall will have little difficulty seeing off whoever the Board nominate as the next best challenger and take his rightful place among Coventry?s boxing elite.

If he ends up fighting Eastman (and, boxing politics aside, he may well do as the London man has nowhere else to go at the moment) then victory would represent a leap into hyperspace for the Coventry boxing scene.